Sirit to Buy SAMSys Technologies

Sirit, a provider of UHF electronic toll payment systems and high-frequency products for product authentication and tracking, will likely gain a stronger foothold in the UHF market through the purchase.

Apr 06, 2006—Suffering under mounting debt it couldn't repay, Toronto-based RFID interrogator provider SAMSys Technologies announced late last week that it had put itself up for sale. Today, Sirit, a competing RFID technology firm also based in Toronto, made public its plans to buy the firm. "We're very excited about this opportunity," states Norbert Dawalibi, Sirit's president and CEO.

Dawalibi says SAMSys' customers and partners should rest assured Sirit will support them in maintenance and upgrades for their installed base of SAMSys products. "We believe [the purchase] will make Sirit a stronger company, and we will work with SAMSys' customers, suppliers and partners," he says. "We are not buying this company in order to turn around and sell the chairs and computers. That's not what we're trying to do. We want to integrate that company within our operations at Sirit."

Norbert Dawalibi, Sirit's president and CEO

Sirit says it has entered into an agreement with SAMSys and the holder of its outstanding debts to acquire the firm's assets and undertakings through a court-appointed receivership process. The firm says it is purchasing the company and assets, but not its debt. "We do not have to deal with the liabilities or debt that is associated with [SAMSys]," Dawalibi claims.

The transaction, pending approval by Ontario Superior Court of Justice, must be completed by Apr. 13, after which the two public companies, both traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, would reveal the terms of the deal. Dawalibi says the tight timetable is important. "It's an uncertain time for [SAMSys] buyers, customers and partners, so we want to get this done as soon as possible so that hopefully, no one will miss a beat here."

"SAMSys has been struggling recently, and I think this is a pretty straightforward deal," says Mike Liard, RFID research program director for research firm Venture Development Corp. "Sirit's strength is in high-frequency products, and SAMSys has strength in UHF. I think Sirit will try to leverage that."

A strong player in the UHF interrogator market, SAMSys recently told RFID Journal about a major product announcement it plans to make at RFID Journal LIVE! in early May (see SAMSys to Unveil RFID Reader Platform). Built with the objectives of lowering deployment costs and increasing product flexibility, the platform is reportedly based on core reader modules that SAMSys and original equipment manufacturers would use to create interrogators in a variety of form factors for different applications.